The Bear Trike is a 'kit' to convert an ordinary hang glider into a powered ultralight trike, made by a Mr. Ivan Matan in his garage in Canada. He calls his 'company' M5T or M5 Technologies (the link may not work by now). The kit was innocently purchased in January 2002 and I was extremely disappointed in it's poor quality parts and workmanship. I truly believe that some innocent pilot is going to maim or kill themselves flying a Bear Trike. In this site I show what was shipped to me and why I know it is dangerous. My hope is no other poor soul will fall victim to the Bear Trike.

 

POOR WELDING:

Here are closeups of the welding . Note pits where the weld didn't take and piles where the weld piled up. In a nutshell, this is very bad welding, suitable for a dumpster or rain barrel, not a flying machine! My brother-inlaw (who is a welder) saw the parts and laughed, asked if they were made by a beginning welding class! *In fact the nose wheel gear collapsed on it's final flight and separated at the weld, big surprise..

Nose wheel gear:.Rear axel:.

Cheap ($5 hardware-store) wheels:

The wheels Mr Matan sends you are from a hardware store and designed for a wheelbarrow or trashcan, NOT an aircraft! They are very thin metal (like tin can metal, I kid you not!) and hollow inside.These wheels are NOT designed for much load, let alone sideways load that comes from landing crosswind! Some have told me "oh, it's ok to use wheelbarrow wheels for ultralight" sure you can but consider the following: The writing on the tire states: "DO NOT USE FOR LOADS GREATER THAN 50 LBS! Now I weigh over 200, the wing and trike weigh another 150, thats 350 lbs or over 120 lbs/wheel! Nothin' like a good old wheel-collapse on landing to spice up the day...And, consider this: the bearings in these wheels are actually just bushings (like a piece of pipe) no ball bearings! He should have used sturdier ultralight wheels or even go-cart wheels.

Cheap Hardware...NO "AN" AIRCRAFT RATED HARDWARE!

Over half of the bolts were hardware store bolts of questionable grade I dont think they were even grade 5 and no locknuts! This means that a critical nut or bolt could come off in flight. With a 2 stroke engine on board, the engine vibrates the airframe like crazy and even Nylocked nuts can sometimes come loose. All hardware should be "AN" (aircraft grade) and with locknuts or some way to secure the nuts. You would never see anything but AN hardware on a real aircraft like a Cosmos or Windlass or a Cessna...theres a good reason for that! Most pilots would rather fly than roll it up into a smoking ball of aluminum...

There were major inconsistancies between what was shown in the drawings and what was actually in the kit. For example the main mast had been cut in 2 and spliced back together, this was not reflected in the "plans" and I still can't figure out why it was done. In fact the entire trike looked nothing like the plans.

Call me picky, but when I buy a kit designed to aviate, I expect the plans to be professionally drawn and detailed, showing some thought was put into the design. There was no documentation as to what types of wings or engines have been tried. When asked, Ivan Matan the designer couldn't tell me. My guess is none have been tried. Congratulations, you are now an aircraft designer AND test pilot! Enjoy.

The Bottomline...

Update: AUG 2005

Well, it's been over 2 years since the thing arrived and after much agony it is in the trash heap (wish I had a crystal ball)! I had decided to try to build and fly the thing, knowing it would be a gigantic project. Here is (briefly) what happened:

First, the only parts I could use from the original kit was the triangle of metal or basic frame and the rear axel holder. Bought at an aluminum yard, this is about $100 worth of 6061 square and round tubing. I bought a lightweight strong seat & belt (threw away the 50 lb garden tractor seat the "kit" came with!) and securely mounted it. I bought ultralight aircraft wheels all around and modified the front fork to make it all work. Basically ALOT of small bits and pieces go into this that you don't think of.

Then came the engine. I had a brand new 20 hp 2si engine on hand, but mounting it to the bare frame became a multi-month long project, agonizing over how to support it, how high off the ground it needed to be, lots of engineering problems to solve. I had Arrowprop cut a 44" 3-blade wood prop for me but they could only guess at the pitch (turns out the pitch was wrong and had to send it back to get it re-pitched because it loaded up the engine too much at full power. Nothing wrong with Arrowprop, getting a wood prop is a guessing game sometimes.

Adding the instruments (CHT, EGT and TAC) was fun. Next came routing the fuel tank/lines, throttle, fiddly bits like that. No matter what, every time I turned around there was some major problem to solve or something mounted somewhere created another problem , I tell ya, this homebuilding stuff will make ya nuts!

Finally time to hang from the rafters to make sure it's going to be configured to land properly...uggh more agonising and problems to solve. Then hooking the wing to the trike: OOOPS! the hang block the 'kit' came with was poorly designed and interfered with the cables inside the wing (would have cut the main cables, causing a crash!). Back to the drawing board, had a sheetmetal company bend a bracket around some nylon block I had to specially cut and drill around the keel so the whole thing would not interfere with the cables. Success, hundreds of $$$ and time later.

OOOPS. The prop was going to interfere with the lower rear hangglider cables, so they had to be moved several feet forward, another trip or 2 to the aircraft supply house. After hundreds of trips (and hundreds of $$$) all over town this project is getting old fast. Will I ever get to fly? Had to build a several hundred $$$ trailer to carry it, and modify the truck rack.

Well the maiden journey went ok, it did fly but a ton of modifications definately needed to be done to make it safer and easier to set up...yet more time and money. Due to a whole host of problems with geometry and engine problems I only got a couple of hours in the thing, one landing in mildly thermal conditions bent and broke 3/4 of the original chariot frame. Most trikes on the market could have handled that landing without breaking, it was NOT that hard! When landing gear collapsed, prop hit the ground, shattered and went through the sail in several places. I has been a constant nightmare and it's in the trash. There were just too many flaws with Bear trike, I just want to forget about it, put it behind me, I feel lucky I got away alive.

Here's what I would do if I did it over again...

I have learned my lesson the hard way, AVIATION IS NOT CHEAP (at least not SAFE aviation where you generally get to live thru the next day) Trying to build your own bird cheaply really is false economy. You could pay a high price (your life). Trying to save money in aviation will often come back and bite you! I lost 2 years of flying time because I wanted to save a few hundred $$$, but ended up spending way MORE $$$ THAN IT WOULD HAVE COST ME FOR A GOOD USED COSMO TRIKE or even a new nanolite trike. Now does that make sense? I should have been much more careful in my choice of aircraft. I thought I was buying an easy kit, it turned out I had to design and build 90% of it!

The following article has some very sage advice from those who know, was shamelessly stolen from the Pilot Friend website (they also have some awesome links for homebuilders):

CHOOSING A HOMEBUILT

• Is your partner committed to the investment in time and money to build an aircraft? In nearly every case, it will take at least twice as long as the manufacturer suggests.
• Why do you wish to build? There are many completed aircraft out there at a fraction of the cost. You could be flying instead of sweating!
  
• What is your mission? Do you wish to do aeros, just fly the patch, visit private airfields, go places fast; how many people do you really want to carry? Many aircraft, for instance will take you a long way fast, but need a long smooth runway. There are 'horses for courses'.
  
• Do you have a place to build and hanger your aircraft? Most homebuilts hate being left outside.
  
• Are your flying skills up to operating an experimental aircraft? Certified planes have to comply with very strict performance requirements. This is not the case with homebuilts...things can happen very fast! Consider taking additional training to bring you up to speed.
  
• Do not pay a deposit fee straight to the supplier. The company may go broke and take your money with them. This has happened a few times. Reputable companies operate a deposit scheme where the money is placed in a protected bank account and is only released when the goods are delivered and signed for.
  It is a bad idea to buy stages of an aircraft at a time. It might seem clever if money is tight, but what happens if you have spent hundreds of hours building wings and then the supplier closes his doors? Do not consider a brand new type. There are always problems and time consuming retrofits. You want an aircraft to fly. and not to do the development and test flying for a manufacturer.
  
• Are you good at building things? Many manufacturers suggest that any one can build an aircraft with a small set of household tools....if only! Roughly 75% of projects are never completed. Remember this. Have you got the staying power? You are talking about a major involvement here and your life will depend on the work you do
  
• Have you contacted builders and heard what they have to say about the aircraft? If the manufacturer is reluctant to give you this information...there is a reason!
  
• Have you test flown an example of the aircraft. NEVER buy before you fly!
  Some types of aircraft may not be permitted to be built and flown in your country. Check with the regulatory body first. They are there to help you and give good advice.
  USA the body is the EAA
  UK PFA
  France RSA etc.
  
• Unless your name is the Wright Brothers, try not to pioneer. Do not be the first in your country to build a type. Help from your peers can be essential. Try not to modify the design. You are getting into aircraft development then, and that is an open ended contract in time and money. Even small changes can have a big effect on the flight envelope.
  
• You will have an inspector who will oversee your work and sign off the various stages of construction. Remember he is there to help you and may save your life. Is a suitable inspector available in your area?
  
• Choosing a homebuilt is as difficult as choosing a partner. Take your time and give it 'due diligence'.
  Aircraft salesmen evolved from horse and car salesmen. Need we say more? "

Heres some homebuilder resources:

THE SKEETER TRIKE I ordered this, october 2004, waited 9 months, kept being told that it was being built. Eventually the guy sent me back my $1050.00 said he couldnt complete my kit. Thats it, getting out of this silly ultralight business.

http://www.ultralightnews.com/plansbuyerguide/

http://www.plansdelivery.com/Ultralight.htm (this looks neat but would do some serious investigating first!)

http://www.affordaplane.com/freeplans.html

http://home.att.net/~m--sandlin/bug.htm